The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - but Some Don't

Nate Silver built an innovative system for predicting baseball performance, predicted the 2008 election within a hair’s breadth, and became a national sensation as a blogger - all by the time he was 30. The New York Times now publishes FiveThirtyEight.com, where Silver is one of the nation’s most influential political forecasters. Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data.

Nate Silver is hot right now. As I write this, it is three days before the presidential election and he is predicting an Obama win (82% chance of winning). His insights about stats, opinions, signal and noise are spot on. Although I am still not 100% sure what Bayesian logic is. Overall a great listen full of insight. A note on the narrator. I take back every negative comment I've ever made in my reviews of his performances. He was excellent in this context.

The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential

With the countless distractions that come from every corner of a modern life, it's amazing that we're ever able to accomplish anything. The Power of Less demonstrates how to streamline your life by identifying the essential and eliminating the unnecessary - freeing you from everyday clutter and allowing you to focus on accomplishing the goals that can change your life for the better

Listy, redundant and padded with common-sense that is more common than sensible, this book falls flat. Sure, there are some good ideas here, and some solid advice. But the good is overshadowed by the bad editing and lack of any kind of narrative. Mr. Babuta would have done better to cite some other experts on the subject while delivering some real-world examples and success stories. Instead, what we get is a lot of his own opinions base on his own experiences, many of which contradict one another. Perhaps most aggravating of all is the fact that the author spends only a little time supporting the title's premise and then goes off on tangents of dieting advice and decluttering one's desk.

In this provocative and optimistic rebuke to the catastrophists, Robert Bryce shows how innovation and the inexorable human desire to make things Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper is providing consumers with Cheaper and more abundant energy, Faster computing, Lighter vehicles, and myriad other goods. That same desire is fostering unprecedented prosperity, greater liberty, and yes, better environmental protection.

Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business

A professional "pitching coach" for one of the world's largest marketing conglomerates, Jon Steel shares his secrets and explains how you can create presentations and pitches that win hearts, minds, and new business. He identifies the dos and don'ts and uses real-world examples to prove his points. If you make pitches for new business, this is the perfect book for you.

Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is Start gives listeners practical, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.

I find Mr. Acuff's stories and examples rather compelling. This is all good advice, laid out in an easy-to-digest format. (I also liked the fact that he did not shove his Christianity down the reader's throat like his boss Dave Ramsey does.) I liked it so much I listened to it twice in a row.

Joyland

Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever. Joyland is a brand-new novel and has never previously been published.

King's storytelling is so approachable and infectious that one easily can overlook the minor play kinks. I wish there had a little more spine chilling ghost action, but overall, I really enjoyed this piece.

Fit2Fat2Fit: The Unexpected Lessons from Gaining and Losing 75 Lbs on Purpose

Drew Manning, a natural fitness junkie and devoted personal trainer, had never been overweight in his life. He never craved junk food or missed an opportunity to work out. Yet despite his obsession with fitness, he failed to help his clients reach their goals. Something had to give. Manning needed to understand what it was like to be on the other side; he had to spend a few months in his clients' shoes - or rather, size. For six months, Manning radically let himself go. He stopped exercising and ate the typical American diet.

The first-person perspective of this book is priceless, and the tips for powering through weight loss without losing your mind (like all battles, weight loss is partly mental) are also quite valuable. Thanks for being the human Guinea pig, Drew.

Dimension of Miracles

Dimension of Miracles is a satirical science fiction novel first published by Dell in 1968. It's about Tom Carmody, a New Yorker who, thanks to a computer error, wins the main prize in the Intergalactic Sweepstakes. Tom claims his prize before the error is discovered and is allowed to keep it. However, since Tom is a human from Earth without galactic status and no space traveling experience, he has no homing instinct that can guide him back to Earth once his odyssey begins - and the galactic lottery organizers cannot transport him home.

Author Ronda Del Boccio says:"Hilarious! - Could have been written this year"

The subject matter, style and no-holds-barred whimsey of this book reminds me so much of Adams, I have a hard time thinking that the two were not drinking buddies or something. Hodgman's performance is stellar.

The Hobbit

Like every other hobbit, Bilbo Baggins likes nothing better than a quiet evening in his snug hole in the ground, dining on a sumptuous dinner in front of a fire. But when a wandering wizard captivates him with tales of the unknown, Bilbo becomes restless. Soon he joins the wizard’s band of homeless dwarves in search of giant spiders, savage wolves, and other dangers. Bilbo quickly tires of the quest for adventure and longs for the security of his familiar home. But before he can return to his life of comfort, he must face the greatest threat of all.

The Demon in the Freezer

"This book will give you nightmares," cautions The New York Times. Richard Preston takes us inside the ongoing war against bioterrorism, investigating the anthrax attacks of October 2001 and the potential for a future bio-attack using smallpox or, worse yet, a new superpox virus resistant to all vaccines. "As exciting as the best thrillers, yet scarier by far, for Preston's pages deal with clear, present and very real dangers," says Publishers Weekly.

Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles

Jake Sullivan is a licensed private eye with a seriously hardboiled attitude. He also possesses raw magical talent and the ability to make objects in his vicinity light as a feather or as heavy as depleted uranium, all with a magical thought. It's no wonder the G-men turn to Jake when they need someoneto go after a suspected killer who has been knocking off banks in a magic-enhanced crime spree.

I loved everything about this book. The characters were interesting and likable/hatable. The story was well told, with plenty of unexpected twists and fresh ideas. I really like the alternative history meets science fiction/fantasy convention. I was sad that it ended, but glad to know there was another book in the series. I will gobble that one up very soon.

I personally pledge allegiance to the Grimnoir.

Also, I want to say something about Bronson Pinchot. The guy is an amazing, amazing narrator. Sure, he was fun to watch on TV and in the movies. But reading books like this one, as well as others (Matterhorn springs to mind) seems, to me at least, to be the ideal expression of his particular performer's genius. He is working his butt off here and as a listener, I can't thank him enough. He can create a dozen characters, male and female, and each one stands on their own sonic merits. I work in the audio medium from time to time and I know how difficult such a thing is to accomplish, and I just have to say, bravo, Mr. Pinchot. You make it look/sound easy.

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